Doctor at War: Strength of Inaction
by Marcus S. Lazarus
Summary: Investigating rumours of Cyber-implants being used for Robocop, the War Doctor witnesses a man with more humanity than many human beings


Disclaimer: I own nothing; you know the drill.

Feedback: Feel free

AN: A more peaceful twist this time around, but I felt that it was time for something to show that the War Doctor isn't just going around shooting people to make a point, or simply believing that the end justifies the means like the Doctor in 'Full Fathom Five' (Part of the intriguing _Doctor Who Unbound_ audio series, six audios looking at how things might have been if certain key events had turned out differently in the Doctor's life, such as if the Doctor never left Gallifrey or the Valeyard won their struggle; in _FFF_ , we witnessed a world where the Doctor believed that the ends justified the means, with the Doctor in that world freely killing people who had actually expressed regret about their actions _in case_ they repeated their past mistakes where the Doctor we know might have let them live and had faith that humanity could be better)

AN 2: For anyone who preferred the original _RoboCop_ , I apologise, but it felt like it would be more straightforward to incorporate the War Doctor into the 2014 version as that version of Murphy struck me as the more human one; hope you like the results anyway.

Doctor at War: Strength of Inaction

Of all the alien races he'd helped humanity fight in the past, it was their interactions with the Cybermen that always made the man once known as the Doctor think.

As a species, they were unquestionably his deadliest enemies after the Daleks- there were individual villains he feared more on a personal level, but that was a different matter altogether- but at the same time, he had to acknowledge that the idea behind their creation had been worthwhile before Doctorman Allan and the Committee took it too far. Even some of his later encounters with them had shown that their technology could be worthwhile if used properly, such as the nanotechnology salvaged on Tasak, but it was just so rarely that people found that technology and decided to put it to safe use, rather than use it to recreate the Cybermen in their own twisted image and repeat Mondas's mistakes…

This case, however, was one situation where he wasn't sure if the technology was being put to good use or bad use. In principle, using it to save a man's life after a devastating accident was a good thing, but considering the manipulations that Murphy had been subjected to after his 'reconstruction', ranging from him not choosing this state to his emotions being shut down because they were 'inconvenient', he almost couldn't blame the man for going too far.

Of course, if the proclaimed 'RoboCop' _did_ go too far, it was his responsibility to shut the man down before Murphy did anything he would have regretted when he was human. He'd done some research after he'd learned about the RoboCop program while on a quick survey mission around Earth- considering its strategic value to various races, it hadn't taken much effort to convince the High Council to ensure that the Daleks couldn't take Earth by erecting various discreet barriers around it, even if it had cost him most of the favours he'd earned before the war- but while his research strongly suggested that Murphy's cybernetics were based on the Cybermen, it had been no substitute for a more direct assessment.

Watching Murphy in action, the old man had to admit to being impressed by what human ingenuity could accomplish. The paint-job aside, the strength was clearly at least a match for most of the Cybermen he'd encountered, but the speed was far beyond what most of the former Mondasians could accomplish, and the wireless interface to the police department records was another clear step up from the apparent source. Even if most of the scientists involved didn't know where they'd acquired their materials, they'd certainly put some thought into making some very impressive additions to the final result beyond giving it a stylish paint-job.

The only thing that troubled the old man was the chip in Murphy's head that had been limiting his emotional responses; that kind of thing might be 'necessary' on occasions when machine-like reflexes were needed as opposed to the slower 'pace' of human thought, but it still seemed far too like the Cyber-conversion process when he got down to it. He'd waited until Murphy's actions provoked the exposure of the conspiracy that had led to his original injuries and exposed what had been done to him in the first place before acting, just in case this didn't work out, but right now he was standing on a roof opposite the OmniCorp building, waiting for Murphy to arrive.

Once the former police detective was inside, with the sniper rifle he'd chosen and his own well-honed aim in this body, it shouldn't be too difficult to score a well-timed shot to the face that would put Murphy down for good while looking like it was the work of the soldiers confronting him…

Looking down at the sound of an approaching engine, the old man tightened his grip on his weapon as the black-armoured form of RoboCop drove up to the building on his motorcycle, facing the various guards assembled between him and the door.

He didn't like having to essentially risk 'sacrificing' someone to this cyborg, but it was the only way to be sure…

A shot suddenly burst from Murphy's weapon to strike one of his opponents, but the man he'd struck simply collapsed to the ground, twitching with an obvious electrical shock but apparently still alive. With that man down, Murphy charged through the new gap in the building's defences and began to lash out at the various drones that had been assembled there to keep him out.

Studying the former detective as he ran through the building towards the upper levels, shooting at the drones when necessary but otherwise focused on his goal, the old man smiled thoughtfully.

"Too human…" he mused to himself, putting his rifle down as he stared at the running man through the windows, watching solemnly as Murphy shot off his own arm to escape being pinned down by a ruined drone, followed by a man he vaguely recognised as Murphy's old partner standing between a drone and the damaged RoboCop to give Murphy a chance to get away.

Maybe the technology that made Alex Murphy what he had become was of questionable origin, but as far as he could see, Murphy's emotional centre was still intact; only fear, rage, and love, three of the most powerful emotions, could provoke that kind of speed from someone in a dangerous situation, and the fact that Murphy wasn't just blindly destroying everything in his path only provided further evidence that he had some central goal in mind.

Add in the fact that a human had moved to _protect_ Murphy, and the old man had seen enough to satisfy himself; the evidence was limited, but it was all that he needed to distinguish Murphy from the origin of his new parts.

He might not _be_ the Doctor in this incarnation, but that didn't mean that he couldn't choose to act like the man he'd been before if the situation didn't call for his current self's approach to things. As far as he could see, Murphy might not be biologically human any more, but he was still fundamentally human where it counted, and therefore worthy of further survival.

Smiling at this rare opportunity to be the man he'd once been, the old man slung his rifle over his should and walked away, leaving the OmniCorp CEO to whatever fate Murphy had in mind for him.

Whatever happened next, he'd seen enough to know that Murphy wasn't going to be like the Cybermen who'd 'inspired' his creation…


End file.
